Monday, 8 May 2017

1978: STARLOG'S BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY PREVIEW

From 1978: another early STARLOG MAGAZINE preview for BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY, including some seldom-seen pre-production art.

The piece gives a very different look to the nightime in Old Chicago scenes, the strongest and most memorable sequence in the debut movie. It's interesting to see the very different visual look for Buck and Twiki as well as - to my eyes - some inspiration from the cantina sequence in STAR WARS (which, lets be honest, seemed to 'inspire' a lot of other SF producers for at least the next decade).

Interesting to note that this was published when the plan was still to deliver a three-flick deal to NBC (a similar deal to the one that Universal initially cut with ABC for BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) with the option of more movies, or a series, later. The plan was scrapped when Universal clawed back the first TV movie and released it as a movie. Before going back to the broadcaster and signing a deal for the weekly series... which just happened to include that recent blockbuster 'movie'.

Funny also to see that the lack of really alien aliens is signposted from the get-go and also funny to see that Tigerman gets a mention as - on screen - he's essentially just a fat body builder in a cheap costume.

SLOW ROBOT

Welcome to STARLOGGED!
It's a repository, and celebration, of Geek Media (mostly print) from the 'Star Age': that pre-millennial period between, roughly, 1972 (the opening of Marvel UK) and 1999 (the release of The Phantom Menace... and the end of innocence). But, of course, we'll bend the rules when we want to.
I only reproduce long out-of-print items for historical reference. I don't include anything that's currently in-print, is likely to be reprinted or otherwise commercially exploited by the copyright holder.
Comments and contributions are most welcome.